Intended as an examination of both the novel and the film, this study analyzes the themes and images of "Slaughterhouse-Five." The study is divided into three sections: a thematic analysis of the novel; an examination of the images and camera techniques in the film; and a discussion of similar themes in an effort to show how they are…

George Lucas's Star Wars trilogy is used as the basis for the creation of a political subtext arising from one of America's most enduring literary myths--the American Adam. That subtext, when translated into a modern political context, pinpoints two central issues to face this democracy in the coming years, as well as a national ambivalence about…

This paper examines the stylistic changes that have occurred since 1850 in short fiction written by women. A shift is noted from the sentimental, romantic, "pretty" writing of the past to today's more realistic writing, with its characteristically vivid imagery. Discussion defines the term "feminist fiction" and shows how today's women writers are…

The role of ideology in mass media practices is explored in an analysis of the relation between the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Shanghai Commune of 1967, two attempts to translate the philosophical concept of dictatorship of the proletariat into some political form. A review of the use of Paris Commune imagery by the Chinese to mobilize the…

A study of symbolism in feature films reveals how the symbolism employed by film makers can serve as a bridge between feeling and thought, and between aesthetics and cognition. What individuals read from and learn through a symbol varies with what they bring to it. The filmmaker's symbolims must be universal and not private. However, symbolism in…

This paper examines the patterns of sound and silence in several poems to show that teaching poetry is helping students to discover how poetry works instead of discussing what individual poems "mean." When teachers urge students to examine the forms and structures within a poem, they enable students to participate with that poem, combining…

This paper discusses teaching "Black Elk Speaks" in the college classroom and examines how symbolic language is generated in our own experience. An activity is described in which students' dreams were performed in order that the students might better see how the dream functions in "Black Elk Speaks." The activity resulted in a discussion of the…

Music videos from the past few years have become a prominent phenomenon in our culture. They are critically compared by a small or large section of the public with the structures of, and relations within, social reality. These videos are considered to portray real situations that are, according to the standards of western culture, severely…

The precision and poetic logic of the language used by Anton Chekhov in his plays, particularly "The Sea Gull," can be explored through an analysis of his use of dialogue, characterization, and imagery. Measuring the nature of a relationship, rather than providing a direct literal interchange, the dialogue is both social, when individual…

The spontaneous use of imaging and its relationships to verbal recall and literary analysis were investigated in a study in which 72 college students read a literary text under one of three sets of instructions that manipulated processing depth in an externally valid fashion. Imagery reports and free verbal recalls of the story were collected…

Noting that the television movie "The Day After" (aired November 20, 1983) is probably the most important of the films generating discussion about the issue of nuclear war, this paper describes a study that examined the rhetorical vision of nuclear war depicted in the film and the ways in which that vision corresponds to the images held…

Although the black poet Melvin B. Tolson is recognized and respected by other poets and critics, he is unknown both to students and to the general reading public. This paper points out that the key to understanding Tolson's poetry, and much of the poetry coming out of black America, is his use of language. The paper examines one of Tolson's major…

This study applies reader-response criticism to investigate subject positions of gender, age, ethnicity, and profession through the poststructural analysis of an art work entitled "A Book from the Sky," and examines the relationship among viewer, text (the art work), and artist. A description of the art work is provided as an…